Axle box



H. S. VINCENT Feh. L 1933.

AXLE BOX Filed Aug. 20 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR ATTONEYS Feb. 21, 1933. H. s. VINCENT AXLE BOX 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 20,

w. I K 5 a INVEN OR ORNEY Patented Feb. 21, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HARRY S. VINCENT, OF RIDGE-WOOD, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO FRANKLIN RAILWAY SUPPLY COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE AXLE BOX Application filed August 20, 1927. Serial No. 214,238.

My invention relates to railway axle boxes, my aim being to minimize wear and increase serviceability. The invention is also concerned with lubrication for such axle boxes. The invention is especially adapted and advantageous for locomotive driving boxes, and I have hereinafter described and explained it with special reference thereto. Various advantages realizable in connection with the invention will appear from my description hereinafter of a selected and preferred embodiment.

In the drawings Fig. 1 shows a locomotive driving box embodying my invention, in place in the pedestal frame of the locomotive. The left hand portion of the box is shown in side elevation, and the right hand portion in section.

Fig. 2 shows a vertical section through the axle box at right angles to Fig. 1, taken as indicated by the line 22 in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 shows a vertical section through the axle box similar to that shown in Fig. 1, but with a somewhat different construction.

Fig. 1 shows a locomotive driving, axle 5 and its driving box 6, which is mounted in the pedestal jaws 7, 7, on the locomotive frame 8. At the lower end of the jaws is shown a pedestal frame binder 9. The driving box 6 is of the general type shown in my Patent No. 1,651,789, issued December 6th, 1927, comprising an inverted yoke shaped or U-shaped box structure 10 open at its upper end to a width sufficient to pass the axle 5, and a bearing member 11 removably secured in the upper end of said box structure 10. In service, the load of the locomotive weight may be transmitted directly to seats 11a, 11a on the bearing member 11, independently of the rest of the box structure. The bearing member 11 may be secured in the box structure 10 substantially as shown in my patent. that is to say, it has lateral dovetails 12, 12, each extending between upper and lower shoulders 13. 14 on the box sides or legs and wedged fast between said shoulders by tapering rhomboidal keys15, 15, Each of the keys 15 is held in place by a stud bolt 16 on the box side that extends through a head 17 on the outer end of the key. On removal of the keys 15, 15 after the bearing member 11 is relieved of its load, it can be withdrawn from the box by displacement endwise along the axle 5.

There is also shown a grease lubricator 18 of the usual sheet metal construction, mounted in the box 6 beneath the axle 5, and urged upward by a spiral compression spring 19 partly accommodated in a groove 20 in the bottom of the box. The cellar portion of the box that houses the lubricator 18 has a fixed outer end wall 21 (at the right in Fig. 2) and a detachable inner end wall or cover plate 22 secured by stud bolts 23. The box structure 10 has a bearing surface 24 at its outer end to take the end thrust of the hub of the corresponding drive wheel riveted to the wall 21 and extending up either side or leg of the structure 10, and the member 11 has a corresponding bearing surface 25 secured thereto by screws 26. As shown, the lubricator 18 is provided with an indicator rod 27 depending through an opening in the bottom wall of the box in front to show when the lubricator needs refilling.

Unlike the driving box shown in my patout, the one here illustrated is provided with a floating bearing bushing or sleeve 30, loose around the axle 5 and also free to turn in the box. This bushing 30 receives the load of the vehicle weight from the member 11 and transmits it to the axle 5, and also the side thrust (fore and aft of the vehicle) from the bearing surfaces at the inner sides of the box legs. As shown in Fig. 1, the bushing 30 is in three 120 arcuate sections, so that it can be removed upward from the box through the opening left by removal of the bearing member 11. In view of the bearing surfaces provided in the legs of the box, the opening left by removal of the bearing member 11 is'less than 180 degrees in transverse section, although such opening is of suflicient dimensions to permit ready removal of the bushing sections. As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the bushing 30 is perforated with a multiplicity of lubricant holes 31, flared at their outer ends, which allow the lubricant from the cellar 18 to against corresponding shoulders formed by rabbets in the ends of the box structure and thus prevent longitudinal displacement of the bushing 30 in the box. However, the shoulders 32, 32 are not sufliciently wide to interfere with endwise removal of the hearing member 11 from the box after withdrawal of the keys 15, or with removal of the bushing sections.

As the bushing 30 is free to revolve in the box 10 with the axle 5, as well as loose around the axle so that the axle may turn in the bushing, it will creep or turn more or less rapidly in the box when the locomotive is running, so that the friction and wear are divided between the inner and outer surfaces of the bushing. In addition, every portion of the bushing 30 periodically comes above the axle 5, where the pressure of the load and the friction and wear are greatest. Thus the life of the bushing is augmented something like fourfold as compared with that of a fixed bushing or crown piece; first, by the division of wear between the inner and outer surfaces of the bushing, and, second, by the even distribution of wear around the entire circumference of the bushing. The external surface of the. bushing and the inner surfaces of the box structure 10 are lubricated by direct contact with the grease cake in the lubricator 18; and the axle 5 and the internal surface of the bushing are lubricated by the grease forced inward and upward through the perforations 31.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, provision is made for additional lubrication of the bushing 30 and the axle 5 from above, by lubricant fed down through the bushing perforations 31 that happen to be above the axle. For this purpose, the bearing member 11 may be chambered, as shown at 33 in Figs. 1 and 2, and its bottom wall may be provided with perforations 34 similar to the bushing perforations 31, through which grease or heavy oil in the chamber 33 may feed downward by gravity to the coacting bearing surfaces of bushing 30 and bearing member 11, and work through the perforations 31 to the axle The supply of the lubricant in the chamber 33 may be replenished from time to time through an opening in its top which is normally closed by a screw plug 35. A clean out opening with a screw plug 36 may be provided in the front wall of the chamber 33. In each of the lubricating schemes the lubricant is carried from the area of contact or supply to all the rest of the bearing surface by virtue of the movement of the floating bushing 30.

As shown in Fig. 3, there is a perforated arcuate wall 37 across the top of the cellar space in the bottom of the box structure 10, which serves to sustain the bushing 30 across this space.

I claim 1. An axle bearing construction including an upright U-shaped box structure open at its upper end, a bearing member adapted to close said upper end, a sectional bushing floating in the box structure around the axle, the opening at the upper end of the box structure being of width suflicient to pass the axle but smaller than the outside diameter of said bushing, and said bushing being composed of sections having dimensions such as to permit removal thereof through the said open upper end of the box structure.

2. In combination with a locomotive driving axle journal, an integral journal box structure having a pair of spaced substantially vertically extending legs and a cross portionbelow the journal integrally uniting the legs, said legs having arcuate bearing surfaces formed thereon and terminating, above the journal axis, to provide an opening or gap of less than 180 in transverse section. a floating bearing bushing around the axle and contacting with the bearing surfaces formed in said legs, said bushing being formed in at least three sections not exceeding about 120 each in transverse section, and a member removably associated with the box structure and having a bearing surface at least partially bridging said gap.

3. In combination with a locomotive driving axle journal, an integral journal box structure having a pair of spaced substantially vertically extending legs and a cross portion below the journal integrally uniting the legs, said legs having arcuate bearing surfaces formed thereon and terminating, above the journal axis, to provide an opening or gap of less than 180 in transverse section, a floating bearing bushing around the axle and contacting with the bearing surfaces formed in said legs, said bushing being formed in at least three sections not exceeding about 120 each in transverse section, and a member removably associated with the box structure and having a bearing surface at least partially bridging said gap, together with lubricating means in said box structure below the bushing adapted to feed lubricant thereto.

4. In combination with a locomotive driving axle journal, an integral journal box structure having a pair of spaced substantially vertically extending legs and a cross portion integrally uniting the legs, said legs having arcuate bearing surfaces formed thereon and terminating, vertically of the journal axis, to provide an opening or gap of less than 180 in transverse section but sufiicient to pass the axle, a floating bearing bushing around the axle and contacting with the bearing surfaces formed in said legs, 5 said bushing being formed in at least three sections not exceeding about 120 each in transverse section, and a member removably associated with the box structure and having a bearing surface contacting with the outer surface of said bushin in said gap,

whereby abacking is provide for the bushing sections as they move through said gap.

5. In combination with a locomotive driving axle 'ournal, an integral journal box structure aving a pair of spaced substantially vertically extending legs and a cross portion integrally uniting the legs, said legs having arcuate bearing surfaces formed thereon and terminating, vertically of the journal axis, to provide an opening or ap of less than 180 in transverse section ut sufiicient to pass the axle,,a floating bearing bushing around the axle and contacting with the bearing surfaces formed in said legs, said bushing being formed in at least three sections not exceeding about 120 each in transverse section, and a member removably associated with the box structure and having abearing surface contacting with the outer surface of said bushing in said gap, whereby a backing is provided for the bushing sections as they move through said gap, together with lubrlcating means in said box structure below the bushing adapted to feed lubricant thereto.

6. A locomotive driving axle bearing con- 'struction including a box structure having a cross portion below the axle with a lubricator cavity therein and leg portions ex- 40 tended upwardl from said cross portion at opposite sides 0 the axle, a perforated bushing interposed between the axle and the box and arranged for rotation under the influence of axle rotation, means for lubri eating the bearing surfaces of the bushing and the axle including a grease cake in said cavity and means for urging thecake upwardly to contact with the bushin and backing means for said bushing inc uding an element fixed with respect to the box v structure and having a bearing surface contacting with the bushing at a point intermediate the sides of said cavity.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name.

HARRY SrVINOENT. 

